Department of Psychology, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2013 Jul 31;4:490. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00490. eCollection 2013.
The aim of this study was to investigate psychological distress, anger and alexithymia in a group of patients affected by myofascial pain (MP) in the facial region.
45 MP patients [mean (SD) age: 38.9 (11.6)] and 45 female healthy controls [mean (SD) age: 37.8 (13.7)] were assessed medically and psychologically. The medically evaluation consisted of muscle palpation of the pericranial and cervical muscles. The psychological evaluation included the assessment of depression (Beck Depression Inventory-short form), anxiety [State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y (STAI-Y)], emotional distress [Distress Thermometer (DT)], anger [State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2)], and alexithymia [Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)].
the MP patients showed significantly higher scores in the depression, anxiety and emotional distress inventories. With regard to anger, only the Anger Expression-In scale showed a significant difference between the groups, with higher scores for the MP patients. In addition, the MP patients showed significantly higher alexithymic scores, in particular in the Difficulty in identifying feelings (F1) subscale of the TAS-20. Alexithymia was positively correlated with the Anger Expression-In scale. Both anger and alexithymia showed significant positive correlations with anxiety scores, but only anger was positively correlated with depression.
A higher prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms associated with a higher prevalence of alexithymia and expression-in modality to cope with anger was found in the MP patients. Because the presence of such psychological aspects could contribute to generate or exacerbate the suffering of these patients, our results highlight the need to include accurate investigation of psychological aspects in MP patients in normal clinical practice in order to allow clinicians to carry out more efficacious management and treatment strategies.
本研究旨在调查一组面部肌筋膜疼痛（MP）患者的心理困扰、愤怒和述情障碍。
对 45 名 MP 患者（平均年龄（标准差）：38.9（11.6）岁）和 45 名女性健康对照者（平均年龄（标准差）：37.8（13.7）岁）进行医学和心理学评估。医学评估包括颅周和颈肌的肌肉触诊。心理评估包括抑郁评估（贝克抑郁量表-短式）、焦虑评估[状态-特质焦虑量表 Y 型（STAI-Y）]、情绪困扰评估[困扰温度计（DT）]、愤怒评估[状态-特质愤怒表达量表-2 型（STAXI-2）]和述情障碍评估[多伦多述情障碍量表（TAS）]。
MP 患者在抑郁、焦虑和情绪困扰量表上的得分明显较高。关于愤怒，只有愤怒表达-内量表在两组之间显示出显著差异，MP 患者的得分更高。此外，MP 患者表现出明显更高的述情障碍评分，特别是在 TAS-20 的 F1 子量表上。述情障碍与愤怒表达-内量表呈正相关。愤怒和述情障碍与焦虑评分均呈显著正相关，但只有愤怒与抑郁呈正相关。
在 MP 患者中发现了更高的抑郁和焦虑症状发生率，同时伴有更高的述情障碍和表达愤怒的倾向。由于这些心理方面的存在可能会导致或加重这些患者的痛苦，因此我们的研究结果强调了在正常临床实践中需要对 MP 患者进行准确的心理方面调查，以便临床医生能够实施更有效的管理和治疗策略。
